Thanks for sharing - that is really amazing... I wish I would have been on that trip... Can you imagine the list of wines that they will have tasted? Maybe Quinta do Noval 1931? Or Fonseca 1945? Niepoort 1927? It must have been a fantastic tour. I'm amused by the fact that the coach is driven by an "experienced British driver". Driving on the "wrong" side of the road, dealing with ox-carts and horses, on curvy, tiny roads with no road-signs, in the mountains with no light... it must have been a real adventure... for the driver as for the passengers.
Looking at the price of GBP 52... including air-fare, hotels and food.... well, I guess it would have been great to live back then with a year-2011 salary... GBP 52 with approx. 6% inflation p.a. would give you a price of approx. GBP 1,800 after 61 years... That seems to be a fair price these days for such a short fun-trip... However, if this trend continues, then we can expect to pay in another 61 years approx. GBP 63,000 for the same tour... Amazing, what inflation is doing to money...
Therefore: Visit the Douro as soon as possible... it will never again be as cheap as it is now...

"I believe I am responsible for 4% of the port wine consumption in my country..."

But the price of money over time is a strange thing. Eight years after this trip my parents bought a house for £200 - that small house would now cost £100,000+ I am quite sure that most people had better things to do with £52 in 1951 than to spend it on a trip to the Douro! That must have been a huge lump of money in those days.

All that said, I loved the thought of bumping along those old winding roads in a huge uncomfortable bus in "armchairs". What amazed me most was that the airfare was included. Cheap air travel is a new phenomenon, so that £52 price tag must have included a chunk of cash to pay for the flights. That makes the rest of the trip very inexpensive.

According to this historic inflation calculator, £52 then would equal approximately £1350 now, which is pretty good considering the all-inclusive nature of the trip...

Though i'm not sure how happy most members of this board would be with the enforced 18s.(£23!) daily spending limit nowadays - I would have thought this put a limit on the number of Noval 31s that could be purchased even back then! (presumably down to the old UK exchange controls - though i must admit this is not something i know a huge amount about.)